Yamaha TX-350 Tuner
Yamaha has been getting heavily in to all sorts of sonic tricks of late with its AV products, but this tuner is a good, honest, straightforward piece of receiving kit. Entirely gimmick-free, it has the usual features: electronic tuning by up/down buttons with programme search, all three bands and 40 presets (in five 'pages' of eight), which apply to any band.
Operation of the TX-350 is simple, although I was initially caught out by the way it only receives in mono unless 'auto' (programme search) mode is selected. However, that's quite sensible, since it assumes that you will only tune manually if the station you want is too weak to be received in stereo. Station frequency is shown on a smart orange display, together with signal strength.
Yamaha provides simple aerials for both AM and FM reception, and I was rather more impressed with the AM one, a proper loop aerial which can be oriented for best pick-up of any given station. The FM aerial is just a piece of wire of suitable length which pushes onto the aerial socket and should normally be positioned vertically. Even the ubiquitous indoor 'folded dipole' (less than £2 from any hi-fi or home electronics shop) is a distinct improvement on that, but any kind of outdoor aerial is much to be preferred. I use a five-element aerial mounted on a rotator on the roof.
The design of FM tuners, especially cheap ones, is based around a fundamental compromise between ultimate potential sound quality and freedom from irritating distortion in less than ideal reception conditions. My first impression in this case was that Yamaha has found a particularly happy balance between the two. Reception at my house is typical of an urban environment - okay, but not brilliant - and this tuner simply made the most of it. Instead of attempting to emulate a top-flight tuner, Yamaha has produced a design which may not be capable of stunning results, but which will, on the other hand, not generate the nasty edginess characteristic of tuners which are left too 'wide open' for their own good.
But even given that, the basic sound of the TX-350 is really quite acceptable, and such flaws as it has are not obvious unless one compares it with something much better. Whether tuned in to Radio 3, London's Jazz FM or Capital, it handles most of the audio range (all but the high treble, which is very slightly dull) with ease, and gives quite a bit of insight into little details as well as following a driving bass or symphonic climax. Most importantly, in my view, it is easy to listen to, unlike some tuners which can become harsh and strident when the music gets tough. I never felt that there was anything wrong, and I was able to sit back and enjoy a wide variety of programmes.
The TX-350 isn't the world's most sensitive tuner, but it will pull in fairly weak signals quite successfully. AM performance is also acceptable.
Comparison with my reference (a Luxman T210, sadly now history) showed that the Yamaha is less than perfectly clear, tending to muddy sounds a little and lose some information in the process. It does sound less 'alive' and real, but not to any alarming extent. Using an FM signal generator to produce a 'perfect' radio signal at the aerial socket confirmed this finding, but also indicated just how good the Yamaha is with real, imperfect signals. As always, a good strong signal (1 mV or more) is needed for best sound.
